In 1925 Romania, young Marie-Therese Von Debretsy refuses the flirtatious advances of her husband's commanding officer. As a result, the cosmopolitan family is reassigned to a brutally bleak and dangerous outpost on the Bulgarian/Romanian frontier where both their relationship and humanity are severely tested.

The woman in red is Ana Cumpanas, a Romanian emigrated to the US, which facilitates the killing of her lover, the famous gangster John Dillinger in Chicago. After an adventurous life, the woman returns to die in her homeland.